The Native and the Interloper.

There are very clear indications that unless steps are taken for their better protection both the native grey duck and the pukeko will disappear from the land before the combined attacks of the shotgun man and the imported swan. In such places as Lake Wairarapa, in the north, and Lake Ellesmere in the South Island, where swan are very numerous, both the duck and the swamphen are gradually being displaced by the introduced brid, which consumes large quantities of the foods on which the indigenous wildfowl have been accustomed to subsist. From Chatham Island, too, news comes that on some places where duck were once plentiful, the Australian black swan has crowded them almost or quite out of existence. On the Waikato lakes and many other lagoons the duck is decreasing so markedly that it is evident it must have complete protection if it is to live and thrive. A close season all the year round for duck for several years is desirable; and it is desirable also that protection should be removed from white and black swan throughout the land in order to reduce their numbers and save the food for our native birds. Swan are voracious feeders, and are pugnacious, too, and the shy duck comes off second best in the fight for existence.